1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to burial containers for the interment of human or animal remains and is particularly concerned with a burial container, the lid and base of which are formed in a sexless and single piece and have walls spaced and/or braced from each other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Caskets in common use at the present time are usually bulky structures made of wood or metal and fitted with elaborate ornamentation. For the most part, such burial caskets are not completely sealable or cannot withstand the soil loads of interment. Consequently, they are usually placed in a massive burial vault made of concrete or some other similar material.
Concrete burial vaults are porous and therefore under soil load pressure will eventually permit the flow of moisture into the vault interior. Attempts have been made to line such vaults with plastic or fiberglass shells, however the continuous pressure of the soil load eventually will cause moisture to move through the pores of the concrete and separate the interior shell from the concrete to which it was originally adhered. An example of the plastic lined version of such a vault is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,439,461.
Other coatings have been applied to the concrete walls of vaults in an attempt to completely seal them from moisture. In none of these earlier developments has one hundred percent (100%) efficiency in preventing moisture seepage and wall separation been achieved. Other variations in vault construction include forming a double wall of reinforced concrete having an inner asphalt liner between the two (2) concrete walls. Other vaults have been made of various molded plastic resinous materials, concrete outer walls having an inner liner of glass, fiber-reinforced resin, and combinations of other pressure and moisture-resisting substances.
All such prior vaults have had certain desirable advantages and in some instances, certain undesirable features and disadvantages. For example, burial vaults made entirely of reinforced concrete where properly made and of a proper wall thickness, have adequate structural and tensile strength to resist the crushing force of the overlying earth load as well as the additional pressure of earth-handling machinery moved thereover, commonly occurring in cemetery operations. However, such vaults made of reinforced concrete are heavy and tend to allow moisture to infiltrate through the porous concrete wall of the vault due to the hydrostatic pressure in the grave opening.
Prior burial vaults made entirely of synthetic plastic resinous materials have been known and used heretofore and certain of them have desirable advantages and characteristics. Yet a distinct disadvantage is the lack of adequate structural, tensile and flexural strength and the resulting inability to withstand the crushing weight of the overlying earth load and the hydrostatic pressure when the vault is interred in the grave opening, and the additional weight when earth-handling machinery is moved thereover.